Do You Love Me?
by Havah Kinny
Summary: The Cider House Rules Buster and Mary Agnes find themselves again and again in a world of pain and heartbreak. They turn to each other for comfort, but when that solace turns in to something more, one of them shies away. BusterXMaryAgnes. slight fluff.


**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, or Cider House Rules. Just the storyline…sort of.**

_**A/N ok, so the writing style is a bit a choppy, and it's repetitive, which is the way that I wrote it to be, but I dunno if everyone will like it. I hope that you enjoy it.**_

_**-Havah**_

Buster whacked at the piece of wood in his hands with his knife. The more upset that he got, the faster, and angrier the knife cuttings became. He had just lost the closest thing to a family that he had, Homer was gone; the brotherly figure who had guided him through life at St. Cloud's was gone. In anger, Buster threw down the remains of the branch that he had been hacking at, and slumped down, leaning against the tree that he had been leaning up against while standing. He jammed his knife in the ground all the way to the handle. Maybe it was a few minutes; maybe it was a couple of hours that he was there, tears of anger sporadically trickling down his face. "Buster?" He heard Mary Agnes calling him. "It's dinner." He didn't move, he didn't feel like eating, moving, or talking to everybody. "Buster, where are you?" She was beginning to sound exasperated. "There you are! Why didn't you come? I know you heard- ok, you're not the only one upset over Homer's leaving, just get up and come on, they're waiting on you."

"Tell them I'm not well."

"I hate that Homer's gone, but we just have to pretend that it's not happening, be strong for the littler kids." Mary Agnes put her hands on her hips and looked at him.

"You only hate the he left because you're in love with him, it's not the same."

"I'm not in love with him," Mary Agnes countered. She sat down several feet away from him.

"Yes you are. Everyone knows it. You're always throwing yourself at him. That day at the train yards, remember? You flirted with those other guys to get his attention. That's not the point. Leave me alone." Buster slumped down a little more.

"That's not what was going on at the train yard. You're not the only person who cared about him, he was family to all of us."

"I don't care. Just leave, ok?"

"Not until you agree to come in and eat with everyone else."

"You have problems." Buster shook his head.

"Yeah, and you don't? We've all been abandoned by our parents, and we just lost the only friend we have who doesn't run our lives. Everyone here has problems."

"Well, then you have more then everyone else." Buster pulled his knife out of the ground, only to shove it back into the dirt again. They sat there for a moment, just wallowing in silence and self pity. Then Mary Agnes just leaned over, grabbed buster by his shirt collar, and kissed him, hard on the mouth, with tongue. He kissed her back for a few seconds. "Ok, what the hell?"

"Just shut up." She kissed him again, this time for longer, and he didn't put up a fight. They sat there under the tree kissing for several minutes.

"Do you love me?" he asked her.

"No." She kissed him again, but this time he stopped her.

"Let's go eat." He grabbed his knife, stood up, and went inside, she followed him, saying nothing.

SKIP AHEAD

Buster couldn't sleep. He hated having lied to everyone about Fuzzy getting adopted. The tossing and turning had been going on for roughly an hour before he stood up and went in to the hallway. He sat down, leaning up against the wall. "What are you doing?" he asked a few minutes later when he saw Mary Agnes walking down the hallway.

"I was getting water." She stopped. "But I can tell there's something more important going on right here. What's wrong?" she sat down next to him.

"Fuzzy…he didn't get adopted." Buster paused he, didn't want to tell her Fuzzy was dead, but he was sick of lying.

"I know."

"You do?"

"Yes." She nodded. "It was too sudden, and none of us saw it coming at all. Besides, he was sick, it had to happen at some point."

"I had to lie to everyone…I hate doing that." He sighed.

"I know…but you know that you did the right thing, don't you?"

"Yeah I guess." Buster shrugged, unsure of what to say. Mary Agnes didn't say anything; instead she put her head on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," she said eventually. This time it was Buster's turn to say nothing. He looked at her for a second, then kissed her, and she kissed him back. They sat there in the hallway, just kissing for minutes, before again, Buster broke the kiss.

"Do you love me?" he asked.

"No." she stood up, and walked to go and get her water. Buster whacked his head against the wooden wall, then went back to his bed, finding that he was actually able to fall asleep.

SKIP AHEAD

They buried Dr. Larch, but Buster couldn't stay at the burial plot any longer then necessary. He went off in to the open space surrounding the building. He kicked rocks until he didn't have the energy to any more. He just stood there, miserable. "Hey."

"What?" Buster turned and saw Mary Agnes behind him.

"I saw you go off, I thought that maybe you would need someone to talk to."

"Yeah, well I don't." Buster turned away from her.

"Come on, Buster, Dr. Larch was old…he was bound to go at some point, at least it wasn't painful." She took his hand and pulled him back around to face her.

"You have no heart."

"That's unfair. I have a heart, I have a huge heart, its just used to breaking by now." She kissed him to stop the conversation, and yet again, he kissed her back. He pulled away again.

"Do you love me?" he asked.

"Why do you keep asking me that?" she asked.

"Because it seems like we keep running into this situation, and I don't understand it."

"You don't have to." She said.

"Do you even like me?"

"Yes."

"In a romantic sort of way?"

"I don't know. Do you like me that way?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Oh." Mary Agnes walked away, leaving Buster alone with his fears and demons.

SKIP AHEAD

"Buster?" Mary Agnes stood at the door of the boy's room; he was the only one there. "Why aren't you down with everyone else? Aren't you excited that Homer's back?" She came in to the room.

"Yeah, I am excited; I just think that I'm going to let all of the younger kids have their time, I'll talk to him later." He stayed on the bed that he had been laying on reading, and Mary Agnes went to sit next to him.

"Alright. That's good I guess. I'm just so glad that he's back." She smiled a little. "It'll be great to have him around here again."

"Yeah, it will."

"Do you love me?" she asked him.

"Yes." He said.

"I love you too." She leaned in and kissed him. He kissed her back for a moment. This time she broke the kiss. "I'm sorry it took me so long to figure it out, but I thought I was incapable of loving anymore; I was just so used to everything hurting, and never healing, but then Homer came back, and I realized maybe there are some things are fate. Like he's meant to be here, and I believe that you and I are meant to be together, that's why we keep finding ourselves…you know, over the last year."

"Yeah, I know."

"Good." She kissed him again, and he kissed her back, this time neither of them broke the kiss. He wrapped his arms around her, and she wrapped hers around him.

"Buster?" They both jumped, breaking apart as they heard a voice. Homer stood in the doorway. "I'm sorry…I should have knocked."

"It's fine," Buster said.

"I didn't know you two were…"

"It's new," Mary Agnes said.

"I'll come back later." Homer left the room, shutting the door behind him.

"Now where were we?" Buster asked.


End file.
